


Nights

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26305090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: Jonah twisted around in his chair. ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Why do you look like the Mirror Universe Kent?’‘Because the conception that American society is a meritocracy is a total myth that our financial overlords use to trick the poor and hopeless into thinking that they’ve got every chance of becoming a billionaire if only they work hard enough,’ Reese said.‘Huh?’‘Kent got raised with money and prospects,’ Reese said.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Nights

Amy drummed her fingers on the side of her seat as she stared out of the car window. Texas. It was like someone had created a giant John Wayne theme park and then peopled it with concussed idiots.

She gritted her teeth as a battered pick-up truck shot past way too close, blasting out some country and western BS that made her brain itch.

‘I don’t know why I have to do this,’ Jonah muttered.

‘Because she hates you and she’s mad at me,’ Amy said. ‘This is a punishment for everyone concerned. Try to keep up.’

‘Maybe she wants him to know how important it is,’ Beth suggested. ‘It’s not like she just sent out some staffer! She sent the Vice President!’

‘I’m not the vice president yet,’ Jonah said.

Amy slid Beth a sideways look. Sometimes she wondered if the other woman could possibly be as moronically naïve as she appeared. Surely nobody that stupid could manage to stand up and breath at the same time?

She just hoped that one of them was capable of understanding birth control. The kind of abomination the two of them would unleash if they bred… ugh… ugh…

‘Are you okay?’ Beth asked. ‘Here, I have some water!’

Amy took a deep gulp of the offered water and immediately regretted it. There was water in there, sure, but there was a shitload of vodka too. Well, that explained a few things. Amy managed to swallow the “water” and wiped her face.

‘I’m okay,’ she insisted. ‘Just… tired from all the celebrating that Jonah is on the Meyer ticket.’

‘It’s the Meyer-Ryan ticket,’ Jonah said.

Amy’s cell rang. She groaned softly as she checked the caller ID. She answered the cell with a heavy sigh. ‘We’re not there yet, Keith.’

‘I hate that guy,’ Jonah muttered to Beth. ‘He’s always smiling too much.’

‘Do I think what?’ Amy asked. ‘Jeez, I don’t know. No? He quit because she asked Jonah to be her running mate so –’

‘Wait, _what_?’ Jonah demanded.

Amy scowled at him. ‘Adults are talking!’

‘He used to work for me! I _fired_ him!’

‘But you said that was an accident,’ Beth said softly.

‘Hello?’ Amy said, looking at her cell. ‘Fucker rang off.’

***

The house made the average McMansion look small and tasteful. As Amy opened the car door, she felt the thud of bass before she heard the whiny squeal of country music.

‘This place is _awesome_ ,’ Jonah said.

‘I don’t understand why Mr Davison would be here,’ Beth said, looking around. ‘It doesn’t seem like his kind of place.’

Amy nodded. ‘Yeah, but this is where his cell phone is apparently.’

They made their way up the driveway to the house proper. There were the remains of fireworks scattered on the grass and empty beer cans in a pile by the garage.

Beth craned her neck. ‘I think the people are in the garden having a party,’ her desire to be heard fighting against her natural tendency to talk too damn quietly. It was probably why Jonah married her. She was so easy to talk over.

Amy banged on the front door.

‘There’s no way that Kent is here,’ Jonah said. ‘This place is way too cool for him. Kent has zero chill.’

Amy shuddered. She hoped that Kent _was_ here, just so that she could talk sense to someone for five minutes.

‘What? No salesmen, charities, or religions, got it?’ The dishevelled older woman who answered the door was far taller than Amy would have expected, and her gaze was extremely sharp. ‘Jeez, how many of you are there?’

‘They don’t count,’ Jonah said, flapping a hand vaguely towards the secret service agents.

‘Boy, bad things start from people deciding that other people don’t really count as people,’ the old woman said.

‘We’re looking for our colleague,’ Amy interrupted. ‘But I think we have the wrong address.’

The woman put her hand on her hip. ‘Seems likely.’

It was a little _too_ ambiguous. Amy narrowed her eyes.

‘Ugh, fine,’ Jonah said. ‘Can I use your bathroom before we go?’

Amy crossed her arms. ‘Aren’t you going to ask who he is?’

The old woman gave Jonah a jaundiced look. ‘Somehow I don’t think knowing who he is will help.’

‘Our colleague,’ Amy said sharply.

There was a clatter from the house as two small boys dressed in swimming shorts and wearing swimming goggles ran in and across to the refrigerator.

‘Did your daddy say that you could have something to eat?’ the old woman called.

‘He’s watching the car chase on the TV!’ the older boy called back.

‘What car chase?’ she called. ‘Hell, it ain’t Reese getting chased is it?’

The boys were too busy grabbing ice pops to answer.

‘Are you gonna let me use your bathroom or what?’ Jonah demanded.

‘What? Oh damn it.’ She opened the door. ‘Upstairs, third on the left. Don’t get grabbing anything! I know what you federal folks are like.’

Amy frowned as Jonah and the secret service men disappeared upstairs. The old woman glanced at Amy and Beth.

‘Come on and have a glass of iced tea then,’ she said reluctantly. ‘Wouldn’t want any of you going back telling people that we don’t have any manners.’

‘I love iced tea!’ Beth said. ‘Is it from Long Island?’

The old woman raised her eyebrows. ‘It can be if that’s what you want. It’s a little early for me.’

Inside the house was no better than the outside. Amy did her best to ignore the array of tacky, tasteless decorations but the music from the garden was doing battle with the sound of the television.

‘Is this your family?’ Beth asked. ‘Such handsome boys.’

Amy glanced at the photographs on the wall. Her eyes skimmed naturally over the images of gap-toothed, grubby, cross-eyed children, shudder, and landed on a framed newspaper cut-out of a grey-haired, moustachioed man being dragged bodily from some kind of cheap chain restaurant. The sort that had plastic place mats and sneeze guards over warm, wilting, never-to-be-eaten salad. “Local Man Banned from Entire Chain” was exactly the level of sophistication she expected from the small press.

‘Who is that?’ she asked, squinting at the fading print.

‘Every time we have family photographs, Reese is somewhere else,’ the older woman said. She sniffed. ‘I think that he’s afraid he’s gonna get recognised by some law enforcement type.’

‘I _hate_ it when that happens!’ Beth said.

For neither the first nor the last time, Amy wondered how much of the time Beth was agreeing automatically to something she hadn’t heard or understood and how much of the time she was cheerfully confessing to something radically at odds with who Amy believed her to be.

As they waited for the older woman to return with their drinks, the front door banged open and a chunky man of average height strutted in accompanied by a taller blonde woman. He had a drooping moustache. She had skin the colour of teak and nails that surely prevented her from everyday tasks like going to the bathroom or blowing her nose.

‘Ricky! You home?’ the man bellowed.

The woman elbowed him viciously. ‘Cal! Can’t you see he’s getting served by lawyers,’ she hissed.

‘We’re not lawyers,’ Amy said. ‘And we’re not writ servers either.’

The older woman returned with the iced tea. ‘Oh, Lord, who let you in?’

‘Do you know Reese Bobby is on the TV being chased by the cops?’ Cal asked.

She sniffed. ‘That man spends half his life being chased by the police. It being televised is just going to encourage him.’

‘We’re actually here looking for our colleague, Kent Davison,’ Amy said. ‘Yay tall, grey hair, beard. Talks a lot about math.’

‘Handsome,’ Beth said. ‘Got a real gravitas.’

Amy looked at her. ‘What?’

‘Ricky’s uncle,’ the blonde said as if this was obvious. ‘Is he visiting?’

‘ _Oh_ ,’ Cal said. ‘Yeah, Kent. He works with you folks? Seriously?’

Amy squeezed the bridge of her nose. ‘Okay, he’s someone’s uncle, that’s… progress, I guess. Is he here?’

‘How would we know?’ the blonde asked. ‘We just got here.’

Amy looked at the older woman. ‘I am damn sure that you know.’

The woman shrugged. ‘He arrived last night but he’s not here right now.’

‘Where is he, right now?’ Amy asked.

‘He went for a drive,’ she said. ‘With Reese.’

***

They left the car in a Walmart parking lot. As Reese pointed out, any camera scanning license plates would have its work cut out for it among the thousands already there. Also, Reese needed some more beer, and Kent needed something to eat.

‘Amateurs get the munchies,’ Reese declared as they strolled toward the store.

‘Amateurs drink beer,’ Kent retorted.

They were dressed in a way that, on paper, might sound the same: jeans, t-shirt, and trainers. The logo on Reese’s t-shirt had faded, softening the edges to the point where the words “NASCAR” melted into the background colour. His jeans had once been powder blue but now were almost white at the knees, where the material was being eaten away by a spreading hole. Reese had been quietly amused to find himself accidentally fashionable. The laces of his scuffed trainers had been scavenged from some other shoes and had been knotted over and over to prevent them from trailing.

Kent’s blank, black t-shirt skimmed his torso, showing off his toned arms and broad shoulders. A little chest hair showed at the v of the t-shirt. His jeans were indigo blue, clinging to his thighs and butt, but falling straight from his knees to his feet. His trainers were designed for hikes, not to be admired or stolen.

The two men were the same height and had the same length of step. But an observer might somehow imagine that Kent was striding while Reese scurried or scuttled. This would be wrong but also somehow not inaccurate.

There was a faint whoosh in the distance as a police helicopter forlornly circled the interstate.

‘How long do you think they’ll keep looking?’ Kent asked.

Reese shrugged as they walked into the store. ‘For traffic violations? Won’t be more than an hour. It’s too expensive.’

‘What a waste of resources.’

‘Spoken like a federal.’

Kent snorted. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, do you _want_ them to keep chasing you around?’

‘Doesn’t mean I think it’s a waste of money and shit,’ Reese said. ‘Kind of people that become cops need to be kept busy. There’s no telling what they’ll fuck up when they’re left wandering around holding their dicks.’

Kent pursed his lips. He had seen all of the statistics about what certain types of people with access to weapons and a feeling of unaccountability did when they had time on their hands. ‘So, you’re doing your part for the public good by giving the police something to do.’

‘I’m a public-spirited man.’

‘Drinking spirits in public isn’t the same thing,’ Kent said,

Reese sniffed, as he poked a large sack of cat food. ‘Never developed the taste for hard liquor. You’d know that if you’d stuck around instead of running off to college and fancy dandy jobs. Grab a cart.’

‘Here we go,’ Kent grumbled. ‘Grab your own cart.’

Reese scanned the aisle, then wandered over to an unattended cart with several packets of diapers

‘Oh for…’ Kent shook his head and walked back towards the entrance.

‘Where you going?’

‘To get you a cart before you get us barred or worse.’

Reese scratched his forehead. ‘Worse like what?’

‘This is Texas. You steal some cart with diapers in it and the baby will probably shoot us.’

***

Amy drank Beth’s Long Island iced tea in several long gulps, holding up her finger when Jonah attempted to ask her what the hell was going on.

‘I think she really needed that,’ Beth said, sotto voce.

Amy finished the drink, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. ‘Is this car chase still on the TV?’

‘Car chase?’ Jonah asked.

‘I don’t know, I can’t see through walls,’ the older woman said. ‘But judging from the way the boys have gone quiet I’d guess not.’

Amy pushed back her hair. She hadn’t noticed that the whooping and yelling had died down. ‘Ma’am, the President of the United States wants to talk to Kent, preferably yesterday but she’ll settle for today. I’m asking nicely. The next people who ask won’t be nice at all.’

The older woman raised her eyebrow. ‘I’ve heard some BS from Reese, but I guess Kent’s got him beat. President of the United States. Hah.’

The blonde woman blew a bubble with her gum. ‘She ain’t lying, Lucy, one time the president before, the, uh, the lard sucking one in the nasty brown suit –’

‘President Hughes,’ Amy said.

‘… whatever, he came to visit the NASCAR one time. Kent was with him. Ricky tried to get Kent to race him around the track but he weren’t dressed right for it.’

Jonah sat down heavily. ‘Can I get one of those drinks Amy had?’

Amy ignored this and stomped off towards the now much more muted sounds from the television. As she approached, one of the little boys ran out.

‘Momma! Momma! We don’t have to go home yet do we?’

There was a dozen or so people sat around the largest television that Amy had never seen. The tallest by far was sprawled across the couch next to a woman sat rather primly.

‘Oh!’ she said, jumping to her feet. ‘I didn’t know we had visitors. Have you folks had a drink? I’m Susan and this is Ricky Bobby.’

Ricky groaned. ‘If you’re looking for Reese, he ain’t here. If he owes you money, nothing here is his. If you wanna serve a writ, best of luck catching up with him.’ He waved his bottle of beer at the television. ‘The cops ain’t managed to do it yet.’

Amy put her hand on her waist. ‘I don’t know who Reese is. I’m looking for Kent Davison.’

‘Then you’re looking for Reese,’ Susan said apologetically. ‘Then went out couple hours ago but, uh, there seems to have been an incident while they were out.’

Ricky glanced at his watch. ‘Should be back pretty soon. They’ll have gone to the store after they shook off the police. They’ll likely head back after that. Unless they go to a bar.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Susan said. ‘Karen is pretty hungry. Whatever else, your dad generally remembers to feed her.’

‘Sure he does, it’s that or she eats his face.’ 

Amy clapped her hands together. ‘Does this “Reese” character have a cell phone?’

‘Uh…’

‘No,’ Susan said definitively. ‘You remember, Ricky? When you got your new one you were going to give him yours and he said –’

‘ – he said that cell phones are a tool of the federal government to track and locate you,’ Ricky finished. He rolled his eyes at Amy. ‘He’s full of these wild and crazy ideas.’

‘How did you know that Kent was visiting?’ Susan asked.

‘We traced his cell,’ Amy admitted.

‘Oh…’

***

It took both of them to manhandle the sack into the cart.

‘You sure this is what Karen wants?’ Kent asked.

Reese put his hands on his hips. ‘Mostly she wants pizza,’ he said. ‘But it ain’t good for her. That girl is beginning to get chunky.’

Kent winced. ‘An all pizza diet is not what I was suggesting.’

Reese snorted as he took hold of the cart. ‘ _I_ can’t afford to eat steak so how the hell am I gonna feed her stead?’

Kent shrugged as he walked along. ‘I didn’t realise that you were planning to pay. That will be a new experience for you.’

‘We ain’t all big shots making federal bank,’ Reese said.

‘None of us are any more.’

They headed towards the liquor aisle. Kent grabbed several bottles of whiskey from the shelves.

‘You got anything lined up?’ Reese asked.

Kent shook his head. ‘Not yet. I’m done with politics. Time for a complete change.’

The other man gave him a sideways look. ‘Ain’t you a little long in the tooth for starting over again?’

‘I’m two years younger than you,’ Kent pointed out.

‘I ain’t the one quitting his job and taking off halfway across the country in a fit of pique.’

Kent scratched the back of his neck. ‘When have you ever had a job to quit?’

‘You are missing the point. Change is… hard. Older you get the harder it is.’ Reese piled beer into the cart.

Kent was quiet for a few seconds. ‘Was it difficult reconnecting with Ricky after being out of his life for so long?’

Reese gave him a look of mingled confusion and disgust. ‘Excuse me? Am I talking to my half-brother or some school-girl?’

‘Kneejerk misogyny, wonderful. Why did I hope that you might be capable of some actual emotional insight into yourself?’

Reese shrugged. ‘Damned if I know.’ He looked away. ‘You think them doors are alarmed?’

Kent followed his line of sight over to the fire doors. ‘Yes. Presumably to stop people from doing exactly what you’re thinking of doing.’ He dug in his pocket for his wallet. ‘I have money. For once why don’t you consider experiencing what it’s like to pay for something?’

Reese shrugged. ‘I pay for plenty.’

‘I didn’t mean _personal_ services.’

They pushed the cart towards the bank of cashiers.

‘I ain’t never paid for those,’ Reese said. ‘Sold ‘em once or twice.’

‘Who on earth would… Never mind. I don’t want to know.’

Reese sniffed. ‘There’s nothing shameful in it. That’s the new thing you know. It’s _empowering_.’

Kent raised an eyebrow. ‘You could make sweeping the floor shameful.’

Reese leaned against the cart. ‘Good for everyone then that I’ve never done that. Not that nor the other.’

‘Hang on, how do you figure that providing… services is fine but buying them isn’t?’

Reese smirked. ‘The fact that you think that doing what you have to survive and _exploiting_ that need are comparable is exactly the reason that this country is in the mess that it is.’

Kent pursed his lips. ‘It can’t be empowering _and_ exploitation, Reese. Do you actually believe anything that you say?’

‘Not generally. Do you?’

***

‘I can drive,’ Reese said, as Kent headed for the driver’s side door.

‘I was hoping to make back alive,’ Kent replied. 

Reese slid in through the window. ‘We got here alive, didn’t we?’

‘You’ve had three beers and two joints since then.’

Kent held his hand out for the key. Reese threw it to him lightly.

‘We were being chased by the cops before that. Hell, we hit one hundred and fifteen miles per hour and that is a personal record.’ Reese shrugged. ‘Now we’re gonna be cruising back nice and easy. Nobody needs to be sober for that.’

The drive back to the house was practically sedate by comparison. Reese blew smoke out of the window as he stretched out in his seat.

‘One of these days they’re going to trace the car back to you,’ Kent said.

‘Ain’t happened yet and I’ve had it more than thirty years,’ Reese said.

‘How have you gotten away with it not being registered to you?’

Reese squinted at him. ‘You of all people should know to _never_ put your private details in any kind of database, least of all government databases.’

Kent rolled his eyes. ‘I know _why_ you haven’t. I want to know _how._ ’

Reese shrugged. ‘I never tell that shit.’

Kent shook his head. ‘Don’t get on a database. You’re been in prison.’

‘That was an egregious assault against my personal freedom! We are promised the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What possible justification can there be for imprisoning a man purely for pursuing happiness in an entirely private way?’

Kent shot him a sideways glance. ‘How about the fact that you were “relaxing” with a banned substance, stood in the window of your hotel, completely naked.’

‘Nobody made those people _watch_ ,’ Reese protested. ‘That was totally their choice, not mine.’

Kent frowned as he saw the town cars parked outside the house. ‘Does Ricky have people coming?’

Reese threw his joint out the window and then rolled the window up. ‘Not driving those cars.’

‘Too expensive?’

‘Too boring. Ricky’s friends drive cars all tricked out so much your eyes bleed.’

Kent parked the car with a scatter of driveway gravel. ‘From you that’s saying something.’

Reese squinted as he looked past Kent over to the cars. ‘There are assholes in dark glasses sit in there. Don’t look like cops.’

‘They look like Secret Service,’ Kent said darkly.

Reese clucked his tongue. ‘Secret Service care about pot?’

‘No. If you’re not counterfeiting or attacking a member of the government then they don’t dare what you do.’

Reese scratched his head. ‘Don’t think Ricky’s likely to be doing either.’

‘Too stupid for one and not stupid enough for the other,’ Kent said.

Reese narrowed his eyes. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Oh, _now_ you care about him?’ 

‘I cared. I’m just not temperamentally suited to doing the parent thing.’

Kent opened his door. ‘I do wonder why you had him.’

Reese shrugged. ‘Someone told Lucy you couldn’t get pregnant if you did it standing up.’

‘And you believed that?’ Kent asked incredulously.

‘We were seventeen and we didn’t have high school diploma between us.’

‘Good Lord.’

***

Amy had drunk three Long Island iced teas and was feeling _verrrrrry_ _niiiiice._ She stretched out on the couch and crossed her legs at the ankle. She was trying to ignore the sound of Jonah and Ricky Bobby playing a video game. It wasn’t the trash talking, cheering, or jeering, that was the problem. She was used to blocking Jonah out. He could give an entire speech without her consciously hearing a single word. No, the noise that was difficult to ignore was the game itself. It had a tinny, repetitive faux-pop musical score. Every couple of minutes she heard the same refrain.

‘Are we _sure_ that we’re in the right place?’ Beth whispered too loudly.

Amy squinted at her. ‘What’s your problem?’

‘They said that Mr Davison was being chased by the police!’

‘No way,’ Jonah said, half listening. ‘Kent is way too boring.’

‘My dad was driving,’ Ricky said.

‘He likes to race the police,’ Susan said. ‘He’s… a character.’

Amy sniggered. ‘That means he’s an asshole. Character is _always_ bad. If something “builds character” then it’s a shitshow. If someone _is_ a character that means they’re gonna be mean or steal your shit or grab your ass.’

‘I’m not a character?’ Jonah asked.

‘You don’t even have character,’ Amy sneered.

Ricky Bobby was lost in thought. ‘I don’t think Reese steals shit. He’s never stolen any of my shit. Has he ever grabbed your ass, Susan?’

She shook her head. ‘He doesn’t even grab those half-dressed girls who throw themselves at you. I don’t think he’s ever stolen anything from us either.’

‘He’s mean though,’ Cal said.

‘True,’ Ricky agreed. ‘Especially when he’s not high or drunk.’

‘I thought he was always drunk or high,’ Cal said, surprised.

‘The legalisation of pot is really putting a dent in his finances,’ Lucy remarked.

Jonah looked at them over his shoulder. ‘Kent’s hanging out with a drug dealer?’

‘That man isn’t sociable to be a drug dealer,’ Lucy remarked.

‘Does he have any Xanax?’ Beth asked. ‘’My usual guy is _so_ unreliable.’

Amy groaned loudly. ‘You don’t need a dealer for a prescription drug. Just tell your doctor that you’re depressed.’

‘I’m not a good liar,’ Beth said. ‘I don’t think he’ll be convinced.’

‘Introduce him to Jonah,’ Amy said. ‘He’ll believe you.’

There was a bang from the front of the building as the door was thrown open.

‘Attention agents of the government, I am unarmed and present no threat. Do _not_ shoot me!’

Susan and Ricky looked at each other.

‘Why is your dad yelling that?’ she asked.

‘I have no idea.’ Ricky raised his voice. ‘We’re all in the TV room. This lady wants to know if you have any Xanax.’

To Amy it appeared as if Kent hadn’t slept for about a week and then mugged a homeless man for his clothes. However, the man who stuck his head through the doorway and suspiciously scanned the room gave no sign of recognising her or even Jonah.

‘Which lady?’ he asked, in a voice that was Kent’s but an accent that was decidedly _not_. ‘The one on the couch looks like she’s been having fun without it.’

‘More fun than with some black-market anti-depressant,’ Amy snorted. ‘Who the fuck are you and where is Kent?’

‘Reese Bobby,’ he said, watching the Secret Service agents. ‘Part-time race car driver, amateur stunt man, and volunteer lifeguard.’

Beth put her hand up. ‘Hello! I was the one asking for Xanax.’

‘Lifeguard?’ Ricky repeated.

Reese gave Beth a thoughtful look. ‘Nope.’

‘Aww.’

‘What I would recommend is a little pot to relax and some Molly to get the good times flowing.’

Beth was wide eyed. ‘Oh, that sounds lovely.’

Amy heaved herself up into a sitting position. ‘Where’s Kent?’

Reese tucked his hands into his pockets. ‘Who’s asking?’

‘My husband is going to be the Vice President,’ Beth said. ‘How much for the pot and the Molly?’

Jonah twisted around in his chair. ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Why do you look like the Mirror Universe Kent?’

‘Because the conception that American society is a meritocracy is a total myth that our financial overlords use to trick the poor and hopeless into thinking that they’ve got every chance of becoming a billionaire if only they work hard enough,’ Reese said.

‘Huh?’

‘Kent got raised with money and prospects,’ Reese said.

‘I refuse to ask again,’ Amy said.

Reese shrugged. ‘He’s outside. He didn’t much want to come and argue about whether he gave enough notice or stole some pencils or whatever BS it is you’re here about.’

Jonah groaned as his character in the game died. He threw down his controller. ‘Ugh! Well come on then.’

‘We didn’t come here for you to get beaten in a video game!’ Amy snapped.

‘We could stay at home for you to do that,’ Beth said helpfully.

Reese took out a joint.

‘Please go outside if you’re going to smoke that,’ Susan said quickly. ‘We have children in the house.’

‘Yeah, they’ll be wanting some and I personally don’t trust them with lit cigarettes,’ Ricky said.

‘I ain’t giving your kids shit!’ Reese said. ‘They don’t appreciate the quality.’

Amy put her head in her hands for a moment. ‘Oh my God, I have not had enough to drink for this.’ She stood up, wobbled slightly, and staggered towards the door.

‘I thought you said that we weren’t going?’ Jonah asked.

She shot him a look. ‘ _I_ am going to talk to Kent about coming into the damn house. If you promise to be a good boy maybe he’ll come back to work at the White House.’

‘I don’t see why I should,’ Jonah grumbled. ‘He used to work for me. It’s embarrassing.’

‘You used to work for him!’ Amy snapped. ‘How do you think he feels about that?’

‘He probably wishes he’d handled sacking you differently,’ Beth said, taking the joint from Reese.

They looked at her.

She got to her feet. ‘I’m going to go outside and enjoy this.’

Reese walked with her.

‘Where are you going?’ Jonah demanded.

‘That’s exactly none of your damn business, boy.’

‘Oh wow,’ Beth said. ‘You’re so _stern_. It’s exciting.’

‘Ew,’ Ricky said.

Amy shook her head and stumbled out towards the front door.

***

Amy opened her eyes and saw Chuck Norris staring back.

She blinked, and the universe reset itself. On the wall opposite her was a _much_ bigger than life poster of Chuck Norris. The room swam as she sat up. She was in a race car bed in a room carpeted with strewn clothes and wallpapered with posters of 80s and 90s action stars. She twisted around to look at the bed, Weird. The kids that she’d seen didn’t seem tall enough to need a bed this size.

She clambered out, grateful that she was fully dressed apart from her shoes. She flipped back the drapes and saw that it was light outside. That meant that she’d either only slept for a couple of hours or overnight. Ugh. That was a horrible possibility. She found her bag and shoes over by the door, with her cell shoved into her bag.

‘Amy?’ Beth asked, tapping on the door. ‘We’re going to have dinner. Do you want some?’

Amy forced herself to her feet, pushed back her hair, and put on her shoes. Then she opened the door. ‘Absolutely,’ she said. ‘Where’s the bathroom?’

‘Oh! Just over there,’ Beth said. ‘I’ll tell everyone that you’re on your way!’

Amy shook her head as she gingerly walked over to the bathroom. She shouldn’t have been surprised that apparently Beth had no ill-effects from pretty much drinking Amy under the table. The woman clearly needed to drink just to deal with Jonah day to day.

Amy pulled a face as she looked at herself in the mirror. It took her a couple of minutes to freshen up her makeup. There. She felt much more human now. It was one of the few things that she honestly had in common with Selina Meyer: they both needed their makeup as armour against the world. It didn’t seem to be something that men needed. Maybe because men went through life on easy mode. Especially older white men. Men like Kent who seemed to jump about from career to career, never at the bottom, never struggling to claw their way into positions of authority and power. Selina had _hated_ him when he worked for Hughes, but as soon as he joined her team, he was right at the top. Now he’d finally had enough Amy had to come and beg him to come back? Where the hell was the person coming to beg _her_ to come back when she quit? Hell, she’d had to apologise to Selina for daring to speak the truth. Now she was trapped working for Jonah freaking Ryan. Everyone else had gone, whether they wanted to or not, but Amy was still there. She should’ve been the top dog now but instead she was in exile.

Amy yanked her hair back into a ponytail and marched out of the bathroom.

***

Kent gave Amy painkillers and a glass of water.

‘I had low blood sugar,’ she said.

He raised his eyebrows. ‘I never took you for someone who would make weak excuses.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘That’s because you’re a man. You don’t get judged the same way that I do. If you get drunk, then you’re one of the boys. If I get drunk, then I have a problem.’

He actually thought about it for a moment. ‘That is a fair point in general,’ he allowed. ‘However, I think you’ll find the standards in this particular part of the country and social strata to be quite… different.’

Amy swallowed the painkillers with a mouthful of water. ‘Would I be allowed to go driving around the country in a stolen car with the cops in pursuit?’

‘The car wasn’t stolen,’ he said mildly.

‘Then why were the police chasing you halfway across the state?’

Kent shrugged. ‘Reese saw a patrol car and made an obscene gesture at them. Then when they attempted to pull him over, he preferred to drive away at high speed.’

‘I definitely wouldn’t get away with that,’ Amy snorted.

‘It helps if you’re intimately familiar with the area.’

‘What area?’ Amy demanded.

A little redness rose in his cheeks. ‘The geographical area.’

‘Oh, Right.’ Amy tapped her foot. ‘Beth said that we were going to have dinner. Are we gonna do that or stay here at the bottom of the stairs?’

‘Apologies,’ he said, holding up his hands. ‘I’ll show you into the dining room. I hope that you enjoy fast food.’

She shot him a look. ‘Fast food like… what?’

‘Pizza, fried chicken, Taco Bell,’ he said.

‘I have to pick? Because…’

Kent shook his head. ‘No, they have all of it. Nutrition isn’t exactly a priority.’

Amy waved her hand. ‘Whatever. I’ve eaten way worse I’m sure.’ 

She followed him into the dining room, where the huge table was covered in containers of takeout food. A few plates of salad and vegetables were ignored and forlorn in the very centre. Amy accepted the plate that she was handed, filled it with salad and sat down between Beth and Susan.

‘Oh, thank you so much,’ Susan said, looking at Amy’s plate. ‘It gets so tiring being the only person trying to eat something with vitamins.’

‘In my work I cannot even smell transfats,’ Amy said.

Jonah heaped fried chicken and pizza on to his plate.

Amy found herself glancing towards Kent. She caught his eye as he put two pieces of fried chicken on his plate along with a handful of fries and some tomatoes.

‘I don’t see tomatoes,’ Amy muttered.

‘Oh, Kent go those himself,’ Susan said. She lowered her voice. ‘He’s _so_ particular about food.’

‘’Huh,’ Amy said. ‘I didn’t know that.’

***

Kent was out on the back porch when she heard Amy’s heels clacking on the steps. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘I think that Jonah is getting ready to leave.’

‘Jonah’s been getting ready to leave since we arrived,’ she sniffed.

Kent shuffled slightly aside to let her sit down to him. The sun was beginning to set but the heat was barely dropping.

‘Pollution makes for pretty nice sunsets,’ she remarked.

‘But short days,’ he said dryly.

Amy leaned back. ‘Fuck Jonah.’

‘No thank you,’ Kent said distastefully.

‘He’s never gonna be president. Sure, Selina might have another heart attack or whatever but come on. This is Jonah. He’s gonna get caught doing fucking stupid and get himself impeached before the end of his term.’

Kent looked across at her. ‘That is a big assumption to make.’

She shrugged. ‘Even if he doesn’t Selina isn’t gonna keep him for another term. Just wait out the four years –’

‘No.’

The finality of his tone pulled her up short.

‘But –’

He shook his head. ‘Amy, I’m sixty-two years old. I don’t _like_ working in politics anymore. I never liked worked for Selina. Now I hate it. I have no need to force myself to do a job that I hate. Let alone one that is actively dangerous to my future.’

Amy snorted. ‘Dangerous to your future? Jesus, that’s melodramatic.’

‘Do you think that Gary embezzled the Meyer Fund?’ he asked flatly. ‘I certainly do not. He’s too loyal, too obsessed with her, and too _stupid_ to have done it.’

‘You didn’t complain when Bill Ericsson was arrested,’ she protested.

Kent shook his head. ‘Bill wasn’t innocent, he was merely the guilty party most easily blamed. Gary _is_ innocent. If you don’t care about it because it’s wrong, then care because it could have easily been you or me. Who will it be the next time, Amy?’

She looked across at him. ‘You bailed because you’re _scared_?’

‘No.’ He shrugged. ‘I’ve had enough. I can appreciate that it might be difficult to believe that I can be demoralised, and yet here I am. I have found the limit of what I am willing to condone. The extent of the behaviour I am _able_ to live with. We all of us have our limit, Amy. I make no judgement on the lines that you draw. I do, however, encourage you to draw those lines. For your own sake.’

Amy was quiet for a few seconds. ‘You’re not coming back?’

He shook his head. ‘I’m thinking of keeping alpacas.’

‘Is that a fucking joke?’

‘I’m not chasing excitement,’ Kent said. ‘I’m certainly not chasing drama. A ranch will do me very well.’

Amy rolled her eyes. ‘I would die of boredom.’

Kent smiled slightly. ‘I have never suffered from boredom and the older I get the more comfortable I am in keeping myself engaged. You’re an intelligent woman, Amy, I have no doubt that you would excel in many careers.’

She smiled despite herself. ‘Jesus, Kent, I’m supposed to be talking you into coming back to D.C. not listening to you persuade me to quit politics.’

He held up his hands. ‘I’m fond of you, Amy, and I only expressing my honest thoughts.’

She gave him a sideways look. ‘You’re fond of me?’

‘I consider you a friend,’ he said meekly.

Amy licked her lips. ‘You’re a weird guy, Kent.’ She stood up. ‘I’ll see you around.’

‘Perhaps you might visit my ranch,’ he suggested.

‘I guess you never know.’ She paused and leaned down to kiss his cheek. ‘Say thanks to your family for me.’

He nodded and watched her walk back into the house.

The End


End file.
